Method and apparatus for gluing wooden staves

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for automatically feeding stave members wherein each newly introduced stave is laterally automatically displaced inwardly against a free edge of a previously laid out layer of stave members such that a close connection is achieved by successive displacements of only a single stave member at a time. A feeder feeds the stave members from a stationary feeding area and a feeding carriage picks up the stave members and delivers the stave members to a carrier surface.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for laying outglue smeared wooden stave members on a receiving area in preparation forproduction of a wooden plate body formed by the stave members in acompressed and glued condition.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally a procedure for laying out stave members on a receiving areais normally performed purely manually even though such approach issomewhat inconvenient. While mechanical auxiliaries have been proposed,such mechanical auxiliaries have not met with any particular successbecause it can hardly be relied upon to push a layer of stave membersacross the receiving areas.

It has been suggested to perform a laying-out of a single row of stavemembers in a side-by-side relationship on a support which could then bemoved across the receiving area and be withdrawn while the layer ofstave members is held in position so as to be brushed off to fall downonto the receiving area; however, the mere withdrawal of a support inrelationship to the glue smeared stave members may disarrange the stavemembers and, all things considered, the delivery to the receiving areatakes place in a rather haphazard fashion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aim underlying the present invention essentially resides inproviding a method by which a laying out of stave members can beeffected automatically in a safe and suitable manner. In accordance withadvantageous features of the present invention, a conveyor belt isemployed which, from a stave-member receiving front end, is moved a steprearwardly every time a transverse row of stave members has been laidout thereon, and the stave members are lead to this area by a stepwisetransversely movable feeding carriage which individually receives thestave members and leads the stave members through glue applying siderolls to feed onto a front of the receiving belt, with the feedingcarriage and/or the conveyor chassis having pusher means located abovethe conveyor belt so as to move in synchronism with the carriage inorder to push each newly introduced stave member laterally against theproceeding introduced stave member or against a fixed side land alongthe conveyor belt, respectively.

By virtue of the above noted features of the present invention, theindividual stave members, upon an appropriate inspection, can then justbe delivered to the carriage which will operate to pass the stavemembers through a suitable glue applicator to enable an easy individualintroduction on the receiving area, where the individual stave membersare displaced sidewards to engagement against the latest introducedstave member. Whereas, it may be difficult to displace a whole row ofalready laid out stave members at the receiving area due to the adhesionof extravasated excess glue, there is no corresponding problemassociated with a lateral displacement of a single layer of stavemembers; therefore, a row of closely packed stave members can easily beformed when it is only every newly introduced stave member that requiresa lateral displacement for successive forming of a closed row of stavemembers.

When a width of the receiving band has been filled with stave members,the receiving band can be activated by being moved a suitable stepforward such that a new row of stave members can be accommodated at thefront end of the receiving band. Subsequently, the filled conveyor beltcan be utilized directly as a carrier for the rows of stave members in ahot press, where the receiving band can be brought to deliver the rowsof stave members to a special carrier surface in such a press.

The feeding carriage moves transversely along the front end of theconveyor belt; however, according to the invention, it achievable thatthe stave members, in a desirable manner, are delivered from astationary area, for example, to a delivery conveyor extending along thedirection of motion of the carriage next to the carriage.

The carriage may include a gripping bar projecting over the deliveryconveyor for stopping the stave members at a particular place independence upon a position of the carriage, and means for successivelytransferring the stave members to the feeding means of the carriagewhereby an operator can take up a permanent work position at a front endof the delivery carrier.

By virtue of the features of the present invention, a horizontalimpression of the laid-out glue smeared stave members can be carried outwhereby comparatively heavy and very steady wooden plate bodies can bemade, with such bodies being applicable for table tops and otherfurniture and construction parts. The receiving area may, for example,be a table that can be rolled into a hot press in which the stavemembers are forced together at the horizontal level while securing alayer of the stave members by a pressure plate disposed above the layerof the stave members.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the method andapparatus will become more apparent from the following description whentaken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for thepurpose of illustration only, one embodiment in accordance with thepresent invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a laying-out stave memberapparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention; andFIGS. 2 and 3 are plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

The illustrated apparatus comprises a delivery conveyor 2 with a seriesof parallel belts 4 mounted on a stationary conveyor frame 6 anddesigned for receiving stave members 8 which at the front end are laidsuccessively transversely to the belts 4.

Next to the conveyor 2, on a pair of floor rails 10, is placed acarriage 12 in a gap between the side of the conveyor 2 and the frontend of a conveyor 14 placed at right angles to the former and having awide plate or rail supported conveyor band 16.

The carriage 12 comprises a gripping bar 18, which projects over theconveyor belts 4 and is provided with protruding lower carrier rollers20 placed on brackets 22 down below the upper surface level of the belts4, while the bar 18 at the top is suspended in a fixedly guided mannerat a stationary carrier arm 24 projecting from the carriage, by liftingcylinders 26. On the arm 24 is also placed a lifting cylinder 28carrying a pair of slim, rotating driving discs 30 adjacent the front ofthe bar 18 on a block 32 carried by the cylinder 28.

On the bar 18 is placed an end stop sensor 34 which can react to thearrival of a stave member 8 and thereby activate the cylinders 26 toraising of the bar 18 such that the stave member, by the rollers 20, islifted away from the belts 4 and up to the somewhat higher level of atable top 36 on the carriage 12, and the cylinder 28 is activated tolower the driving discs 30 from a raised inactive position of thedriving disks, whereby these driving discs 30 are pressed against theupper side of the arriving stave and cause a movement of this inwardlyover the table top 36 of the carriage 12. In order to protect the uppersides of the staves it might be preferred that the carrier rollers 20are the driven ones while the discs 30 are passively rotatable thrustwheels.

The caught stave member 8 is hereby pushed onto or into a driving rollerconveyor path 38 on the table top 36. The path 38 comprises a pair ofrollers 40 for applying glue to the side areas of the stave member, theglue being supplied from a suitable glue store which is onlyschematically shown at 42.

The stave member is hereby pushed onto the front of the still-standingconveyor band 16 as it leaves the roller path 38 via a roller pairincluding a lower, driven roller 44 and an overlying, resilientlydepressed counter pressure roller 46, for examples, the stave memberwill be left having its rear end placed immediately in front of thisroller pair.

Next to the roller pair 44, 46 is located a cylinder 48 with a thrustpad 50 which in its completely retracted position allows the table 12 tobe moved a step forward for a push-in of the next stave without thepreviously only partly introduced stave hitting the pad 50, and thecylinder 48 is positioned such that the pad 50 by actuation of thecylinder will hit the end of the previously deposited stave and therebypush it all the way onto the belt 16.

On the sides of the belt conveyor 14 is placed, adjustable in thelongitudinal direction, a pair of upwardly protruding side brackets 56which between them carry a transverse plate member 58, which betweenthem carry a transverse plate member 58, which stands upright from thesurface of the belt 16 and is raisable from the belt by cylinders 60. Ina lowered position, this plate member will constitute a stop for thepushing forward of the stave members 8 when the stave members 8 arepushed forward by the thrust pad 50.

On the carriage 12 is placed a carrier arm 62, which projects over thefront end of the conveyer belt 16 and carries a transverse cylinder 64,the piston rod of which comprises a presser foot 66 which can press thestave member 8 that has just entered the band 16 against the row ofpreviously introduced staves. A corresponding presser foot 68 can beplaced in connection with a cylinder 70 situated on and below a carrierbushing 72, which itself is situated at a screw spindle 74 between thebrackets 56. This spindle 74 is turned so as to displace the cylinder 72corresponding to the displacement of the cylinder 64 at the movement ofthe carriage 12, 36 along the floor rails 10, driving means, notillustrated, being provided for causing such displacement of thecarriage as the laying out of the stave members 8 on the belt 16gradually proceeds.

When a transverse layer of stave members 8 thus has been laid out at thefront of the belt 16 during successive lateral pushing in of the stavesagainst the already laid stave members 8 it is time to move the belt 16a step rearward to facilitate a successive laying out of a newtransverse layer of staves. To render this movement possible it must beensured that the cylinders 60 be activated to raise the stopper plate58, such that the laid out staves can be led past this place. The band16 is moved such a distance that the laid out stave layer will just passthe plate 18, which is then lowered again, whereafter the laying out ofa new layer can be commenced. When the band 16 is suitably filled it canbe moved for transfer of the items to a suitable, known pressarrangement. FIG. 2 shows the situation where a stave member 8, restingon the belts 4, is moved towards the lowered gripping bar 18 so as tohit this bar in a level above the lower rollers 20, while FIG. 3 showsthat the bar 18 is then lifted so as to carry the stave 8 on the rollers20 into a correct level for the following transfer to the carriage 12.The driving discs 30 are lowered to contact the top side of the stavemember 8 for driving it into engagement with the roller conveyor 38 onthe carriage 12. Also shown is the driving engagement of a stave member8 with the roller pair 44, 46 at the delivery side of the carriage 12.

It should be mentioned only briefly that the apparatus naturally shouldbe provided with the necessary sensor and control equipment to ensuringan appropriate automatic progress of the various operations.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for laying out glue smeared wooden stavemembers on a carrier surface for producing a wooden plate structureconsisting of joined stave members, the method comprising the stepsof:individually supplying the stave members to a feeder carriagetransversely displaceable relative to the carrier surface along an endedge thereof; moving the stave members by a moving means on the carriagethrough a glue smearing means on the carriage for smearing glue onvertical sides of the stave members and thereafter onto the carriersurface; and laterally displacing the stave members on the carriersurface into engagement with a side of a previous stave member by pushermeans moved in synchronism with said carriage.
 2. A method according toclaim 1, wherein the step of individually supplying includesindividually supplying the stave members to a feeder conveyor extendingalong a travel path of the feeder carriage, conveying the stave memberson the feeder conveyor with the stave members lying transversely to adirection of conveyance of the feeder conveyor, moving a stave memberdisplacement means along the feeder conveyor in synchronism with thefeeder carriage in such a manner that a stave member on the feederconveyor automatically activates stave member displacement means uponarrival thereto so that the stave member is displaced from the feederconveyor to the feeder carriage.
 3. An apparatus for laying out gluesmeared wooden stave members for producing a wooden plate structureconsisting of joined stave members, the apparatus comprising:a carriersurface for receiving the stave members; a feeding carriage meansmovable transversely along an edge of the carrier surface for feedingthe stave members to the carrier surface; moving means provided on saidfeeding carriage means for receiving successively supplied stave membersand pushing the supplied stave members forward through a glue applicatoron the feeding carriage means to a delivery position on the carriersurface; and a transversely oriented pusher means provided on at leastone of the feeder carriage means and the carrier surface andsynchronously movable with the feeder carriage means for laterallydisplacing a latest introduced stave member into engagement with a freeside of a previously introduced stave member.
 4. An apparatus accordingto claim 3, wherein said pusher means comprise a first pressure cylinderlocated above the carrier surface on a carrier arm projecting from thefeeding carriage means and a second pressure cylinder located from thefirst pressure cylinder above the carrier surface and connected withmoving means controlled so as to displace said second cylindersynchronously with the movement of the feeding carriage means.
 5. Anapparatus according to claim 3, wherein said moving means includes aroller conveyor with driven rollers for conveying the stave members anda pusher mechanism for further forward pushing of the stave members uponleaving the roller conveyor.
 6. An apparatus according to claim 5,further comprising an upright cross wall member extending transverselyover the carrier surface, and wherein said pusher mechanism is adaptedto push the respective stave members into abutment with said cross wallmember.
 7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said carriersurface includes a broad conveyor band, and means are provided forselectively raising and lowering the cross wall member relative to saidconveyor band, whereby a laid out layer of stave members on the conveyorband can be moved by the conveyor band when the cross wall memberassumes a raised position.
 8. An apparatus according to claim 3, furthercomprising a feeding conveyor means extending in parallel with a travelpath of the feeding carriage means and near an intake side of thefeeding carriage means for conveying the stave members disposed thereonin a direction transverse to the conveying direction of the feedingconveyor means, and displacement means extending across the feedingconveyor means and movable along the feeding conveyor means insynchronism with the said feeding carriage means for displacing thestave member from the feeding carriage means onto the feeding conveyormeans, said displacement means including means for detecting an arrivalof a stave member and for actuating the displacement means to displacethe stave member from the feeding conveyor means to the moving means ofsaid feeding carriage means.
 9. An apparatus according to claim 8,wherein said displacement means is mounted on a carrier arm projectingfrom the feeding carriage means across and over the feeding conveyormeans.
 10. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the pushermechanism is mounted next to a side of the roller conveyor so as to beoperable to longitudinally push a stave member previously supplied tothe carrier surface.